SG Morning Call | STI Falls 0.35%; 2.9 Million Singaporeans to Get S$200-600 in Cash in December

Market Snapshot

Singapore stocks opened lower on Friday. STI fell 0.35%; Prime US Reit rose 1.3%; ComfortDelGro fell 1.3%.

Stocks to Watch

$CapitaLand Ascendas Reit(A17U.SI)$: (Clar): Its manager on Friday said the real estate investment trust (Reit) will acquire a parcel of land in the US that will be developed into a new logistics property at an estimated investment cost of S$94.8 million. On a pro forma basis, the acquisition is expected to be accretive to the Reit’s distribution per unit. Units of Clar ended 0.4 per cent or S$0.01 higher at S$2.62 on Thursday.

$Golden-Agri Resources(E5H.SI)$: The palm oil producer’s underlying profit fell 18 per cent on the quarter to US$91 million for its third quarter from US$110 million. On Thursday, the company said the decline was driven by higher expenses due to increased interest rates and income tax expenses. The quarter’s earnings, however, were up 80 per cent on the quarter at US$118 million from US$65 million, as the latest quarter recorded foreign exchange gains. The counter closed 1.8 per cent or S$0.005 lower at S$0.275 on Thursday.

$ComfortDelGro(C52.SI)$ 0%: The transport giant’s net profit grew 15.2 per cent to S$57.5 million for its third quarter ended September, as revenue rose by 18.4 per cent to S$1.2 billion. Its top-line growth was driven by contributions from its overseas markets, which increased by 51.1 per cent, largely due to its acquisitions of UK-based ground transport management and accommodation network specialist CMAC Group and Australian taxi network operator A2B Australia. Shares of ComfortDelGro closed unchanged at S$1.49 on Thursday, before the results were announced.

$Prime US Reit(OXMU.SI)$: Its distributable income fell 42.2 per cent year on year to US$8.5 million for the third quarter ended September, from US$14.7 million. The Reit’s manager on Thursday said this was due to higher expenses and lower contributions from its properties, Waterfront At Washingtonian and 101 South Hanley, as well as the absence of contribution from One Town Centre which it divested in July. Units of the Reit closed unchanged at US$0.154, before the results were released. 

$Cordlife(P8A.SI)$: The embattled cord-blood bank reported a net loss of S$1.6 million for the three months ended September 2024 versus a net profit of S$1.4 million in Q3 FY2023. On Thursday, Cordlife said revenue for the quarter fell 31 per cent to S$10.1 million on lower contributions from Singapore, which recorded only 15 days of operations for the period. Shares of Cordlife closed flat at S$0.148, before the business update was released.

SG Local News

2.9 Million Singaporeans to Get Between S$200 and S$600 in Cash in December

About 2.9 million Singaporeans aged 21 and above in 2025 will receive between S$200 (US$148) and S$600 in cash in December this year.

This one-off cash payout comes under the Assurance Package, which is aimed at helping to alleviate cost-of-living pressures for Singaporean households and provide more support for lower- and middle-income families. The package was enhanced by a further S$1.9 billion at Budget 2024.

S’Pore Firms Captured $5.45 Bln in Venture Capital in First 9 Months of 2024

Despite a slump in funding, Singapore’s venture capital market remained active in the first nine months of 2024.

Firms headquartered in the Republic raised US$4.05 billion (S$5.45 billion) across 369 deals in the nine months ending September 2024, down slightly from US$4.3 billion and 410 deals in the same period in 2023, according to a report by Enterprise Singapore and research firm Pitchbook issued in November.

GIC Believes in Long-Term Potential of US: SM Lee

GIC’S mission is getting harder in a darker and more complex geopolitical climate, but the sovereign wealth fund still believes in the long-term potential of the US economy, Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Wednesday (Nov 13).

Estimating risk-adjusted returns will be much harder, said SM Lee at the GIC Insights 2024 dinner in New York City.

“We are no longer just calculating stochastic, quantitative risks that we can model and estimate, but also assessing uncertainties that are harder to predict, and scenarios with unquantifiable probabilities and unforeseeable consequences.”